Hank, a day or two later...

So Friday I didn't post about the Hankster mainly because I didn't have any new photos of him and couldn't think of anything terribly new to talk about either. Puppy school is over and we've pretty much stopped doing any sort of practice of his commands altogether. Though he does still know what we want him to do when given the chance.

I did buy him a new head halter, since he bit through the last one, and the one time I took him for a brief walk without it, just using his regular neck collar, I was afraid that every house we passed would call the SPCA on me for animal abuse. But I'm sorry, it takes a bit of heft to heave a nearly seventy pound dog back into submission. I figure if he can drag me around, I'm entitled to the same.

So Friday afternoon I decided that we would get some nice outside shots of Hank, which we did. It was a lovely spring day and both the constable and I were outside doing a little yard work. And of course we wanted Hank to join us. Recently, we've been trying to get him acclimatised to the tie out lead, so that we don't have to escort him out into the yard to do his business every time he requires it. We were doing this all winter since he was little wee, needed to be trained and the weather was crap. Now that it's nice and he's a big boy, I figure I shouldn't have to get fully dressed in the mornings anymore to watch my beloved biped poop in the grass. Really not my idea of a great way to start a morning.

This tie out thing...it's not going well. The first couple of days I thought he might get the hang of it. I'd let him out the door and wish him luck. I'd peer through the kitchen window to see how he was doing. Then I'd make my coffee, check my mail, go back and check the window again to find my Hank standing peering at the door. Awesome, I thought! He's got this down no problem. Wasn't until later that day when I go to walk out the front door that I find that Hank has left me two rather large calling cards right near the front step, meaning the damn dog is too afraid to leave the vicinity of the house. Back to the drawing board on this one.

So guess what we're doing now? Getting fully dressed, taking Hank out on his tie out and trying to train him the importance of location, location, location.

We thought he might feel more comfortable with noodling around in the yard on his lead if we were out there too. No dice. He seems to think the lead is some sort of magical paralysing device. If you're not pulling him along, he has no idea what to do. He just stands there, and quivers. And, as I've recently noticed, drools. Which he does when he's very upset. Things weren't going too too badly on Friday afternoon, but once the hubs or myself were out of sight, like, you know, in that scary place all the way around the corner, my scary looking seventy pound German Freakin' Shepherd lost his mind. You would've thought we were torturing him with the way he carried on. And on. And on. After that, he wanted inside and was seemingly more content to watch us out in the yard from the comfort and safety of the window.

But we did get some fun playing pictures, which were really cute, cuz this whole spring thing is entirely new to my beautiful boy and has him both excited and puzzled. The first couple of days that I had some windows open, he didn't know what to do with himself. Too much sensory input.

I was going to post those playing pics today, as well as the little video I took. But then I decided to go away for the whole day yesterday, and when I came home, I found this...



...a ruined coffee table. Those aren't just surface scratches, those are deep teeth gouges.

When I first walked in the door, I was all excited to see my dog. I miss him after a while. I was all ready to make a big fuss, then I turned around to put down my things and I saw what I saw. All I said, in a raised voice was 'What did you do??!' and I turned back around to see a dog who was all hunched over, with his ears straight back and really sad puppy dog eyes. I silently took him out to relieve himself and when we came back in, he did this...



...put himself in time out. Which is where he stayed for the better part of an hour, until my husband came home. He wouldn't come near me. I didn't hit him or scream at him, just admonished him for his behaviour, and he so knew that what he did was wrong, he punished himself.

He heard my husband pull into the driveway and went to the door to greet him, where there was much merriment until I showed him what Hank had done. Then he got another tongue lashing, and again with the ears and the sad eyes and back in the crate he went. We don't send him to his crate as a matter of punishment by the way, so it's not as though he knows that's what he's supposed to do.

Hank was very mellow and kept his distance from us the whole evening, and wouldn't go near my husband at all, even when he was ready to make up. I had to be the one to tell my Hankster that it was okay, we'd forgiven him. Cuz it's really hard to stay mad at a dog who's harder on himself that you are.

And it was right after that that we found the tick. Near his ear. Quite engorged. And really freakin' gross.